Friday, April 1, 2005

McDonald Germany's New Asian Themed Ads

Reader Jenny G. emails:

"Today, I came across a new McDonald's ad running in Germany. Apparently, they have come up with an asian-themed menu for Asia Weeks there in Germany. My problem is that they have managed to make a shape on the top of the sandwich buns that looks a bit like the kanji for 'Strength', but not quite. So I was hoping you could help me out.

You can watch the TV spot on the http://www.mcdonalds.de/ web site. Just wait for their Flash page to load and you will see a section called Hin & Ham Wochen, with green bamboo. Click that, and in the bottom right corner of the pop up window, click on "Funk & TV." which will bring up the commercial. Anything you might figure out will help."

15 comments:

The Yin burger ("Sweet and Sour!") has "[A] Savory/juicy pork [patty]with fresh cucumbers and and crisp salad mix on a fruity Mango/Wasabi sauce." Somehow I don't see mango and wasabi as going together very well.

I think it is the character for "round"; I am unsure about Chinese, but in Japanese, 丸 means "circle" and 丸い means "round". And because the burger is round, I'd bet that it's a miswritten 丸. This character is pronounced "maru".

Also, as an FYI, 丸 = maru in Musashimaru, the Yokozuna. A couple reasons are in the ether for why he got this. One is that it is a match for his real name, FiaMALU. The other is that the okamisan was reminded of a ship or something, and maru is used in ship's names.

The other place you see maru is the Japanese flag, the "hi no maru" or "circle of the sun".

Tian: Regarding Maxi... Since this is a commercial for McDonald's in Germany, and they're actively using the term, I suspect that they do not use or have the same brand in Germany, so it wouldn't make any difference to them.

Hey Token, you shouldn't knock the mango/wasabi sauce before you try it. I had sauce like that on seared ahi once and it was quite yummy.

Just found this site the other day and I think it's great. If anyone is watching college basketball this weekend, be sure to check out Sean May from North Carolina. He has 可以 tattooed on his arm, but maybe someone told him it's stupid cause he covers most of it up with a sweatband now.